Nature deficit sends kids down a desolate path

If you've been wondering whether your children are suffering from nature-deficit disorder, Richard Louv suggests examining their current relationship with the great outdoors.

Has your son ever said, "I like to play indoors because that's where all the electrical outlets are"?

Is your daughter more familiar with Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than a squirrel, beetle and elm tree?

Is your child unsure of how to "play" in an open, natural outdoor space, one that has no playground equipment?

Alas, Big Pharma hasn't yet given us a prescription drug to combat this hypothetical medical condition that writer Louv coined and detailed in his important book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder" (Algonquin, $13.95 paper).

But Louv has identified something many parents have been feeling but couldn't quite name: the increasing alienation between children and nature.

It's a loss that, in some ways, is too large to see but one that has profound implications. Nature, Louv argues, is not just a quaint form of leisure, secondary to TV and computer games. It's a critical part of child development.

"Nature is directly connected to our health," Louv preached to the converted during the recent American Camp Association conference in Chicago. "It helps us feel better physically and psychologically. It helps us pay attention."

Louv's book cites new evidence that children need nature to develop their senses for learning and creativity.

In the U.S., Sweden, Australia and Canada, studies have shown that children who play on natural playgrounds (trees, fields, streams) are more likely to make up their own games and are more cooperative than those who play on man-made equipment.

Nature also is being looked at as a form of treatment, in conjunction with behavioral therapy and Ritalin. Groundbreaking work from University of Illinois researchers has shown that exposure to ordinary natural settings may effectively reduce attention-deficit symptoms in children.

Biologist Edward O. Wilson's "biophilia" hypothesis argues that humans have an affinity with the natural world. When we aren't exposed to a natural landscape, we suffer.

"Could part of the huge increase in the number of kids diagnosed [with ADD] be because we've taken nature away in the first place?" Louv asked. "We have to change the message we give our kids."

The message children hear today is largely twofold: The outdoors is unsafe because stranger danger is lurking around the corner, and it's too late to save the planet from environmental destruction.

But statistics show the outdoors is not as dangerous as we believe. And even though President Bush's pro-industry policies make him one of the weaker environmental presidents in U.S. history, parents need to stress that nature is the solution, not the problem.

"The message from media and environmental groups is that it's too late, game over," Louv said. "Then we wonder why kids don't suit up for the game. We need to instill hope."

It's not easy, as the Arctic melts and developers wipe out wetlands and unstructured natural sites such as woods, fields, vacant lots. But nature need not always be Yosemite; it can be the end of a cul-de-sac, where a 3-year-old can dig through weeds or turn over a rock to see the pale creatures underneath.

The key is to develop a sense of ownership, whether it's with a small patch of woods or a willow tree in a suburban front yard. "Even `near nature' can be a window into wonder," Louv said.

After defining nature-deficit disorder, Louv began what he cleverly called the "No Child Left Inside" campaign to help decrease the number of hours that children spend plugged into an electronic medium. (Some studies show it's 44 hours a week.)

Now, to help entice funding for outdoor education, he is searching for a single, catchy, marketable word that means "how nature helps children blossom."

"Nature" itself doesn't work, Louv said, because so many people don't "get" what nature is. "Environment" is too abstract and loaded. "Emotional intelligence" is boring. "Nature therapy" connotes an illness.

My guess is that a child will be the one to inadvertently capture the perfect word. Until then, remember childhood educator Maria Montessori, who said simply: "In nature, children find strength."